Verizon HP Mini Notebook

The Mini itself has an acceptable enough specification sheet: a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, two USB 2.0 ports, 802.11b/g, SD slot, and Windows XP.

The unit doesn't have any special Verizon branding. looks like a standard HP Mini 1000 with the big exception of Verizon's built-in, internal 3G
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The HP Mini 1000 was released by HP a while back and has had strong reviews and performance.

The setup out of the box was a easy - once we got through the usual ten minutes of Windows configuration and updates.

The Mini ships with the familiar "VZ Access Manager" software pre-installed on the desktop. A quick run through of the activation wizard and you are connected.

It didn't take long at all to achieve a connection. A full re-boot to active Verizon connection took about 3 minutes the first time and barely over 2 minutes on subsequent boots.

Once connected, browsing was speedy and nearly blip free.

As a whole we found our common, everyday tasks like browsing, checking our email, and viewing videos on YouTube to be lag-free.

We saw speeds of up to 866kbps down and 521kbps up, which is still pretty decent. This is probably not the PC or internet connection for heavy duty downloading, but for most things it's relatively snappy.

We also didn't detect any significant battery drain as a result of our heavy-duty internet usage -- we still got around two hours plus minutes off a full charge.

The Verizon subsidized pricing of $199.99 (after the $50 mail-in rebate) with a two year activation on one of Verizon's Mobile Broadband plans calculates to $680 a year (Verizon offers a $39.99, 250MB per month plan, in addition to a $59.99, 5GB per month plan).

It's a bit costly, but you nonetheless end up paying less than if you're buying the laptop straight-out and acquiring service on an individual basis.

In the end, this machine and its accompanying 3G card -- are likely going to be completely acceptable for on-the-go, day-after-day tasks. People who are already used to to the netbook experience will without doubt see this to be a big convenience over a USB dongle,

Some people still prefer the flexibility of the external USB dongle. Even if it does not exactly blow you away, you can't actually find too much to grouse about here, and to be perfectly honest, we find ourselves growing more impressed with this little guy by the hour.